May is Asian-American Heritage Month. I was the speaker for the Asian-American Heritage Council's gala earlier this month. Part of its mission is to promote and enhance the positive image of Asian-Americans. That positive image is so critical, because racism is built on stereotypes and negative images. Racism festers when there is no communication or real information. In discussions of race in America, the focus has almost always been on black and white. We have finally included Latinos.

In recent weeks, Chinese-American communities across the U.S. have organized to protest a segment on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Oct. 16, in which a child suggested that killing everyone in China is the way for America to resolve its debt crisis. As a Chinese-American, I'd like to explain why it is not right to joke about killing everyone in China. First, it is against the universal value that has been championed by Americans: We should respect lives and treat people equally and humanely.

LAKE BUENA VISTA -- Several community groups joined under the Asian American Heritage Council are holding the 10th Asian Gala today to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in Orlando. The gala will feature a formal dinner, live entertainment and a keynote speech on the value of diversity, said Jun Zhu, the council's assistant treasurer. The event costs $50 for adults and $25 for children. It is a scholarship fund-raiser. The gala, which starts at 6 p.m., will be at the Disney Coronado Springs Resort, 1100 W. Buena Vista Drive, Lake Buena Vista.

Looking to capture young, tech-savvy Asian Americans, a Long Beach advertising agency turned East for inspiration. The firm, InterTrend Communications, came up with a Web series that blended elements of South Korean soap operas with a novel Japanese storytelling device that employed online social networks. The series, sponsored by AT&T Inc., quickly notched nearly 10 million views on YouTube and generated 4,700 suggestions from fans about how the story should unfold. The unusual interactive nature of the Web series, called "Away We Happened," could provide a template for advertising in the future.

Racial hate crimes against Asian Americans across the country are increasing in number and severity, partly because of the notorious Golden Venture people-smuggling case and the anti-immigrant backlash that followed, a national coalition of Asian legal groups has found. The survey by the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, based in New York, said 335 incidents deemed or suspected to be anti-Asian were reported last year across the country, ranging from verbal or written epithets to assaults.

Asian-Americans make up 20 percent of the undergraduate class at Harvard. Yet almost a quarter of Asian-Americans do not have a high school diploma.More than 20 percent of one Asian-American group, those with origins in India, have household incomes greater than $75,000 a year. Yet among refugees from Laos, more than 70 percent of families survive on welfare.This picture of extremes is contained in a sweeping report on the economic well-being of Asian-Americans, the nation's fastest growing minority group.

CHARLOTTE , N.C. — They may be the fastest-growing and best-educated racial group, boasting the highest average income in the country, but when it comes to politics, Asian Americans have historically spent little time in the political spotlight of either the Democrats or Republicans . But on Monday, a group of leaders at the Asian American and Pacific Islander caucus meeting at the Democratic National Convention ...

Putting the histories of Asian-Americans - whose numbers top 7 million in this country - into six volumes would be daunting to anyone.''It took my breath away,'' said Cal State Fresno anthropologist and historian Franklin Ng.But then Ng - a native of Hawaii who has long been fascinated by ethnic diversity - took up the project. The result is the Asian- American Encyclopedia, the first reference book of its kind.Edited by Ng and published by Marshall Cavendish of New York, the 1,900-page encyclopedia already is on many library shelves.

A University of Central Florida professor wants to bridge language and cultural gaps between Asian-Americans and Americans by organizing a social service center in Orlando.Edward Suh, a Korean who is a social work professor, said the center will provide a range of preventive and educational services to meet the needs of Central Florida's growing Asian-American population. He estimates that at least 10,000 Asians live in the area.The center will serve Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese, Thai, Koreans, Pacific Island and Philippine people in Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Brevard counties.

Asian-Americans comprise the single largest ethnic block in the University of California's incoming class, a first for the 30,000-student campus, school officials said. For the third year in a row, no single group holds a majority in the new class at Berkeley, the most diverse of the nine-campus system. Asian-Americans, including those of Filipino descent, make up 34.7 percent of the incoming class of 3,221, whites make up 30 percent, Hispanics make up 19.5 percent, blacks make up 7.8 percent and American Indians make up 1.5 percent.

How many of you feel as though you get enough sleep every night? Raise your hand. Anyone? By now, most of us know that not getting the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep nightly can affect our health in a variety of ways. And perhaps you know that race and ethnicity matter when it comes to how many hours we sleep. Blacks tend to get less sleep than other racial groups. The researchers at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine know this, and when they started to crunch the numbers for their Chicago Area Sleep Study, they weren't surprised to learn that the average sleep duration for white participants was 7.4 hours per night compared with 6.8 hours for blacks.

CHARLOTTE , N.C. — They may be the fastest-growing and best-educated racial group, boasting the highest average income in the country, but when it comes to politics, Asian Americans have historically spent little time in the political spotlight of either the Democrats or Republicans . But on Monday, a group of leaders at the Asian American and Pacific Islander caucus meeting at the Democratic National Convention ...

Plumes of smoke from roasting lamb skewers curl into the night air. Crowds jostle past fermented tofu stands and vats of curry fish balls. "Xia bing'er! Xia bing'er!" one vendor sings in the high, lilting dialect of Beijing . "Shrimp pancakes!" David Fung, a new Houston Rockets hat on his head, slides through the Asian night market in Pasadena with his brother, Andrew. "Dude, this is like the 626 Olympics," he says, weaving to the beat of Rihanna and YG. PHOTOS: 626 Night Market The two are swept up in the moment and start belting out a version of their viral YouTube rap about the 626 — the area code of much of the San Gabriel Valley.

The public's eye recently has been focused on a unilateral, politically charged action taken by President Barack Obama that circumvents the constitutional process of legislation that awards a legal status to illegal immigrants who meet specific criteria. While almost one million individuals will be affected by the policy change, the target audience is the growing Hispanic population that is courted by politicians. Interestingly, the lead statement in a Pew Research Center study looking at immigrants in 2011 may further change messaging and actions of politicians and their operations.

Asians now comprise the largest group of new immigrants in the U.S., representing 36 percent of immigrants in 2010, according to a Pew Research Center study. The report, "The Rise of Asian Americans," highlighted "Asians overtake Latinos," as if we had been playing each other in the Immigration Championship Finals. Asian Americans remain a smaller minority group, at 6 percent of the total U.S. population than Latinos, at 17 percent, and African Americans, at 12 percent in 2011, according to Pew. I'm still waiting to see Asian Americans visibly participate this election season, as candidates and campaigners.

For M. Night Shyamalan , there's a lot riding on his latest film, The Last Airbender . He turns 40 in August. "It's my last movie in my 30s," he says with a laugh. "I won't be 'the kid' anymore." The film, based on the hit Nickelodeon TV cartoon, is a potential franchise. "I took it on because it could be a long-form story," he says. "It's a three-part story for me," with possibly two more films about the nomadic Earth, Air, Water or Fire peoples. "I feel some ownership of this."

Asians now comprise the largest group of new immigrants in the U.S., representing 36 percent of immigrants in 2010, according to a Pew Research Center study. The report, "The Rise of Asian Americans," highlighted "Asians overtake Latinos," as if we had been playing each other in the Immigration Championship Finals. Asian Americans remain a smaller minority group, at 6 percent of the total U.S. population than Latinos, at 17 percent, and African Americans, at 12 percent in 2011, according to Pew. I'm still waiting to see Asian Americans visibly participate this election season, as candidates and campaigners.

Any American kid can grow up to be president, or so the story goes. But children of Asian ancestry better not hold their breath. One out of every four Americans would feel "uncomfortable" voting for an Asian-American for president, says a recent poll. The same number of bigots also said they'd disapprove if an Asian-American married into the family or if more than a few moved into the neighborhood. In other words, the ugly prejudice of this land of opportunity isn't just toward blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans.

As the race for the White House accelerates, Asian-American leaders in Central Florida are working to transform their community into a political force. It is an uphill battle. The local Asian community is relatively small when compared with other minority groups. And it has long watched politics from the sidelines. But many think these attitudes are on the brink of changing because of a new generation that navigates more easily between East and West. "Asians have been a silent group for too long," said Andrew Jeng, vice president of the Asian American Heritage Council of Central Florida.

The dress in Rachel Siu's closet is like the one her mother wore every day in Taiwan. It is an ankle-length outfit made of silk with a high, tight neck and slits along the side designed to allow movement without revealing much leg. The black floral dress, called chi pao, hangs beside the business attire she wears to Rotary meetings and the conservative accountant skirts and blouses she favors over suits. Those clothes make her feel like the American she has become. The chi pao dress makes her feel like the Chinese she will always be. It is a tactile reminder of her mother, her homeland, her heritage.